Chrome for Android can drop data consumption by 70 percent

Internet usage has become prevalent on smartphones, and last January Google introduced Data Saver mode to tackle the bandwidth usage. After getting competition from fellow browser Opera, it's boosting its compression capabilities.

Google announced on Monday that it's updating Android's Chrome Data Saver mode to decrease user data consumption by up to 70 percent.

Google accomplished this by "removing most images when loading a page on a slow connection," product manager Taj Oppenheimer reported in the blog post. If Chrome finds a weak connection, it'll load a page without images leading to less data consumption. Users can can also choose to load all the pictures, or select individual pictures to load.

These updates will be first available in India and Indonesia, with rest of the countries to follow. While there are plethora of cheap and reliable sub-$150 smartphones available in India and Indonesia, legacy telecommunications infrastructure has made some users to use 2G connection. Whether the improved functionality will be pushed Chrome's iOS app or not, is yet be revealed.

Data compression is a hot business in India and parts of Asia, with Opera announcing a deal last month to make the Opera Max data saving app come pre-installed on smartphones from Samsung, Xiaomi, Acer, Hisense and more. Samsung was the early adopter and came up with the app before others. It launched and promoted its On series in India focusing on the data-compression technology.